Audio communication systems are well known for certain commercial applications. For example, such systems have gained wide spread recognition in drive up bank teller systems to facilitate banking transactions. In such systems at a bank, a customer drives a vehicle up to one of a group of remote customer stations, for transacting business without entering the bank building. The customer stations are disposed adjacent to individual drive up lanes.
Communications between the bank teller and the customer are accomplished via a communication system.
The system typically may include microphones and speakers, which are positioned at each one of the customer stations, and which are connected to communicate with a microphone and a speaker used by a bank representative, such as a teller, inside the bank building. The customers have communicated through the representative's speaker, which enables the representative to hear the requested assistance needed for the banking transactions. However, other nearby persons, including customers and strangers, can overhear the sometimes private and confidential communications from the customers outside the building at the remote customer station. Such a situation is, of coarse, unwanted and undesirable, because any customer has a right to expect a certain amount of privacy during such banking transactions.
Another disadvantage associated with prior known systems, is that the representative is required to remain at the microphone, in the event that one or more of the customers may want to communicate from the various drive up customer stations. However, since the drive up customers do not always require assistance in their transactions, the representative can remain idle for long periods of time. Such idle time is wasteful and unproductive, since the representative could otherwise occupy his or her time productively by performing tasks during such time when there is no request for assistance from the remote stations.
One possible solution would be to employ a wireless communication system, where the representative uses headphones for private communication with the drive up customers. It would be important that such a system would enable the representative to move freely about, so that he or she could perform other tasks, when assistance is not required by the drive up customers. Additionally, the representative, such as a bank teller, would be able to assist other tellers within the bank, and thus, a fewer number of tellers would be required during certain banking hours.
However, when employing a wireless communication system, such as a short range radio frequency system, it can be a complex matter to enable the representative to communicate via wireless audio links to a relatively large number, such as ten, remote customer stations, from a single transceiver used by the representative. In this regard, ten audio links must somehow be switched to the representative's transceiver selectively, under the control of the representative.
The problem is compounded by the fact that such a system should ordinarily be a half duplex system, and thus controls are required for each station as well as the representative transceiver to enable the representative to communicate to the remote drive up station in a half duplex mode of operation. Thus, such an arrangement would be unduly expensive to manufacture, and awkward to use.
Therefore, it would be highly desirable to have a wireless communication system suitable for use in a multiple customer station, drive up commercial business. Such a system should enable the representative to communicate selectively with each one of a plurality of remote customer stations, in a convenient to use manner, employing a wireless communication, such as a half duplex arrangement.